7 Valuable Lessons That Will Radically Change Your Life
There’s no easy way to transition into a new blog post after a one-year hiatus, so if you’re reading this, I first want to thank you for still being here.
A lot has happened in the past year, a lot of which needed to take place behind the scenes of this blog in order to fully process everything and learn to move forward. And while I ease my way back into this little blog of mine, I thought I’d start by sharing some valuable lessons I’ve learned since my last post.
What’s written below isn’t something I learned overnight. It was learned through trials and tribulations. And a lot of them.
A part of me wants to say this past year completely wrecked me, but the other part of me feels forever indebted to the things that brought the most pain for it has molded me into the person I am today.
As you read through this post, it is with the deepest hope you always remember to grow through what you go through despite any challenge you may face. Because you, friend, are a remarkable spirit who is capable of anything.
no moment is ever truly wasted.
I have to remind myself of this a lot- especially when the going gets tough. And I think no matter how in control we are in our lives, these words will always be something that need to be repeated. Every experience, or moment, is molding you for the next.
Because every second of our lives can be a teachable moment but, first, we must choose to perceive it that way.
perspective changes everything.
Merriam-Webster states perspective as a mental view- a simple definition, yet it packs so much meaning and power. And it has guided me to where I am today.
In times of doubt, worry, or defeat, it has helped me see this beautiful gift of life I’ve been given more clearly. In times of contentment, it has taught me to become more grateful.
Wherever you are in your life, a simple shift in mindset is all it takes to begin appreciating every little bit this life has to offer again.
And, if you’re feeling a little lost today like I was, I hope you remember that this morning you woke up. You took deep breaths and smelled a pot of coffee and picked up your phone or tablet or laptop to come here and read this. You’re doing better than you think, I promise.
Just remember to have a little perspective.
joy and pain can coexist.
If it’s okay with you, I’m going to squash one lie we’ve all told ourselves at some point once and for all: "joy and pain cannot coexist."
We actually DON'T need to have a pain-free life in order to experience joy. Yes, pain is unavoidable and out of our control, but pain is also deceitful. It coaxes us into believing we are unworthy of finding joy. It wants us to ruminate in the way it feels, to tell ourselves there isn’t room for anything else.
I wish I could go back in time in the past year, grab the old me by the shoulders, and knock some perspective into her. Joy isn’t just some destination you’ve reached once you’ve navigated through the long and winding road of pain.
Joy is always with you. It wants to hop in the passenger seat of your life, roll the windows down, and turn up the radio as you ride through the pain. But it wants to call shotgun, so that when the going gets tough, you know it’s always right beside you.
remember to put yourself first.
Okay, confession. Sometimes I make the mistake of not practicing what I preach when it comes to this valuable piece of advice.
When you’re in a position of serving others, as rewarding and humbling of an experience it may be, sometimes the person you tend to overlook when doing so is yourself.
I was in that place this summer. My heart just wasn’t in it. Between not feeling myself and spending more time than not in a doctor’s office, I was slowly losing my spark. I decided it was best for me to take a break from social media and regroup.
Smart move, right? But it turned out my body had MUCH different plans in order to knock some sense into me.
You can read all about that here, but in a nutshell, my blood sugar had unexpectedly dropped so dangerously low one day that by the time I arrived in the ER, I was on the verge of a coma. My body took a beating of a lifetime that day and in the weeks to come, and while my social media hiatus ended up turning into a time of healing from a physical standpoint, here’s what I learned.
Listen to your body when it’s trying to tell you something.
While my blood sugar drop was completely unrelated to what I was previously experiencing, it opened my eyes to something I had shoved under the rug for so long. You can only treat others as well as you treat yourself. In order to show up for others, you have to show up for yourself, first. That’s where the real magic can begin to unfold.
never give up on hope.
This spring, I was leaving a doctor's appointment at the hospital with a long list of unresolved questions. This scenario had somehow become my norm, and I was beginning to lose faith. Maybe things weren’t going to change, I thought as I left that appointment. Maybe seeking answers weren’t worth it when all it ever did was crush my spirit and leave me feeling a little more defeated than before.
These thoughts continued to haunt me as I made my way down to the cafeteria for a caffeinated pick-me-up, still feeling hopeless and confused. While waiting for the elevator, I happened to look up and noticed the ceiling tiles were painted by patients of the hospital. Above me was a painted blue tile by someone named Riley. It read:
Never give up on hope, and it won’t give up on you.
Over the years, I’ve found that, in tumultuous times, hope is usually the first thing that gets used up. It’s as if we have a finite amount of something that quickly gets depleted when we can’t make sense of the present moment.
But hope is ever-present as long as we choose to never give up on it. So, always believe in hope, especially in the unknown. Hold onto it. Let it be your guide through the things you become weary of. And, most importantly, never let it go.
there are lessons in the messes.
thisthisthis. Allow me to start off by saying something every single person needs to hear- including all of you wayyy in the back:
Your greatest lessons will be learned through your toughest messes. Those moments where you feel hopeless? You know.. the ones where you’ve trudged through the mud only to get mud splashed from a car driving by? Something beautiful is happening at that moment whether we choose to see it that way or not.
And, oftentimes, we choose the latter. We’re so programmed to push aside the hard stuff that when it gets woven into our everyday lives, we resist it. But I’m here to tell you to fight back. Shift your perspective, and you’ll find your lesson.
A little mud never hurt anyone. It just showed us we’re still capable of cleaning ourselves off after getting a little messy, first.
if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
Okay, so this is actually a quote by Tony Robbins, and I sort of had my a-ha moment with this revelation fairly recently. That being said, I don’t feel at liberty to sit here and share some great advice that you can apply to your own lives. But I can tell you there’s validity in what Tony Robbins is saying.
For much of the past year, I spent my free time reading self-help books, scrounging the internet for advice columns, and reading just about anything I could lay my eyes on that would serve as a teachable moment in my life. It felt right. In fact, it was right.
Sometimes I think the best mentors are right at our fingertips, giving away a wealth of knowledge for free. But here’s the thing.
I spent so much time waiting for an osmosis-like change where the information would soak into my brain and suddenly rock my world that I was ignoring the most obvious piece of self-help advice there is.
If I keep doing the same things and repeating the same behaviors, I’m going to get the same results. We’re creatures of habit, but sometimes the habits we create will hinder our growth.
So, I guess you could say this is my declaration for change. I’m not quite sure what that entails yet, and I don’t know where I’m going to start. But I do know the time to do so is now.
I’m ready to break old habits and become familiar with the unfamiliar. I’m ready to get comfortable in the uncomfortable. And I am so. dang. ready. for change to become my constant.
